Rock On Ruby set to take on Hurricane Fly in Champion Hurdle
Rock On Ruby is all set to take on Hurricane Fly in the Champion Hurdle (Grade 1) at Punchestown in Ireland on Friday, April 26, 2013. The latter of the two is the clear favourite to succeed, so it will be difficult to beat him in the race.
Both these challengers have been delivering some outstanding results for their respective teams over the years and the spectators would love to see them battle it out against each other in the all important contest at Punchestown.
In their most recent meeting Hurricane Fly was rated as the outright favourite to succeed and he did not disappoint his rivals at all. However, things were not that easy for him as they appeared. He had to fight quite hard to stay at the front and managed
to win by just two and a half lengths eventually.
One of the reasons behind his slight struggle was the ground, which was soft because of heavy rain. He had to push a little extra, thus the rest of the runners saw an opportunity and exerted pressure on him.
Despite that, the Willie Mullins trained stallion proved to be the best in the end and displayed solid stamina to make his team proud yet again.
Rock On Ruby was the only one, who managed to put some pressure on the veteran runner, but he will like to go one step further this time around. He will have to push extremely hard and will need a bit of luck too. Otherwise he will be unable to take the
top spot at Punchestown.
His trainer Harry Fry knows that things will not be easy at all. “It's going to be a challenge,” he said. “It's exciting to be part of a race of this calibre and hopefully it can live up to its billing. We're just looking forward to it more than anything.”
He added, “The ground is far from ideal for us but we've got the blinkers on again, they help us tactically. Noel Fehily can't wait; since he got off the horse at Cheltenham he has been looking forward to this day enormously, as we all have.”
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